West Virginia and Idaho have refused to provide state voter roll data to the Department of Justice.

What we found

Supports. Idaho Secretary of State Phil McGrane rejected DOJ's demand for Idaho's unredacted voter roll in a Feb. 26, 2026 letter, citing court losses and privacy law.[3]

Supports. The Atlantic reports McGrane wrote to DOJ that he could not share Idaho's voter rolls without a clear legal requirement to provide a complete, unredacted list.[2]

Supports. West Virginia is among the states DOJ sued, and a federal judge ruled DOJ could not access West Virginia's unredacted voter rolls because its demand to Secretary of State Kris Warner was legally deficient.[4]

Supports. USA Today reports GOP officials in Idaho and West Virginia fought DOJ's voter-list requests in court.[5]

Context. Idaho and West Virginia are both among the Republican-led states that resisted, and the DOJ has lost most of its cases over these rolls. The claim's wording ('refused to provide') fits the record, and the passage's 'illegal' framing reflects the states' legal arguments rather than a court ruling that such sharing is illegal.[1][6]

Sources

6 sources: 1 primary, 2 tier 2, 3 not rated

1. 1Tracker: DOJ Lawsuits Seeking States' Sensitive Voter Datastatedemocracy.law.wisc.edu · primary source · cited for: context
2. 20 for 26: The Trump Administration’s Astonishing Losing Recordtheatlantic.com · tier 2 · cited for: supports
3. 3Even red states are defiantly rejecting DOJ’s demands for ...democracydocket.com · not rated · cited for: supports
4. 4New York Sheds Voter Roll Suit as DOJ Loses 12th Straight Casenews.bloomberglaw.com · not rated · cited for: supports
5. 5Trump DOJ's effort to get state voter rolls hits a wall in courtsusatoday.com · not rated · cited for: supports
6. 6The Trump administration has filed 31 lawsuits seeking ...cbsnews.com · tier 2 · cited for: context

Where this claim was made

Said in 1 published post

• The NPR Politics Podcast · Aug 28, 2026“We've seen states as red as West Virginia and Idaho, for instance, push back and say they're not going to give their state voter roll data, that it would be illegal to do that, to give that to the Department of Justice”Post →

Related claims

• The Department of Justice has sued approximately 30 states for not complying with requests for unredacted state voter rolls.True
• The Department of Justice has lost 22 court cases regarding requests for state voter rolls, including district court and court of appeals decisions.True
• The Department of Justice subpoenaed the state of Nevada for their voter rolls.True
• The Department of Justice has sued 30 states for unredacted voter lists and lost 23 of these cases.True
• The Department of Justice began suing 30 states and D.C. last year to obtain unredacted voter rolls.True